On February 17 at 4pm Oren Lyons will be speaking in the auditorium of the Granoff Center for Creative Arts (on Angell St between Thayer and Brown) at Brown University in Providence RI. A synopsis of his talk is included below. At noon the following day, the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team will be playing an exhibition match against the Brown lacrosse team<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style>"The Little Brother of War: Lacrosse, the
Doctrine of Discovery, and American Indian Tribal Sovereignty"</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Although physically situated within the territorial limits
of the United States and Canada today, Native nations like the Onondaga Nation
and other members of the Haudenosaunee (also known as Six Nations or Iroquois)
Confederacy retain their status as sovereign nations. Each Native nation
reserves the right to choose its leadership, determine its citizenship, approve
land use, and to regulate trade and commerce. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy
issues its own passports, which have been used for international travel since
1923 when Deskaheh traveled to Geneva to formally apply for his people to
become members of the League of Nations.<span style>
</span>The Confederacy also developed its own internationally recognized
lacrosse team, the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Club, to compete in a sport
invented by the Haudenosaunee thousands of years ago.<span style> </span>Despite initial opposition from the U.S., the
International Lacrosse Federation granted the team membership as a nation in
1990, and they have been competing in world championships, traveling on their
Haudenosaunee Confederacy passports, ever since.<span style> </span>In 2010, the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team
found their right to travel on Haudenosaunee passports challenged when Britain
denied them visas to attend the world championships in Manchester, after the US
state department refused to confirm that they would be permitted to reenter the
US.<span style> </span>What ensued was an international
debate about indigenous sovereignty and rights, and the continuing role of the
“doctrine of discovery” in relations between Native nations and the settler
governments who now occupy their territory.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On February 17<sup>th</sup>, we are pleased to host Oren
Lyons, National Lacrosse Hall of Fame player, Onondaga Turtle Clan Faithkeeper,
and University of Buffalo faculty member to speak about the cultural and
spiritual role of lacrosse, “the little brother of war,” as a way of
maintaining international tribal relations, and in contemporary times the role
this game has played in the debates around tribal communities as sovereign
nations within the borders of the US and Canada.<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> Lyons is an award winning
internationally renowned speaker who is a founding member of the Indigenous
Peoples Conference of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights; a
member of the board of the Harvard Project on American Economic Development;
and recipient of the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, the National
Audubon Award, the First Annual Earth Day International Award of the United
Nations, and the Elder and Wiser Award of the Rosa Parks Institute for Human
Rights</span><br clear="all"></p><br>-- <br>************************<br>
Elizabeth Hoover, PhD<br>
Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies and American Studies<br>
Brown University, Providence RI<br>